WordPress is undoubtedly the most popular blogging platform on the web. The popularity and versatility, together with the ease of which it can be used, has propelled it to be used on 22 percent of all the sites on the internet. Many of the web sites of well-known companies have been built on the WordPress platform, and it is used by many of the Fortune 100 companies.
Because it is open source, and the API is readily accessible, there are over twenty thousand plugins that have been developed to help users to make more efficient use of the platform. Most users must recognize that there are two versions of WordPress. The online version requires registration at WordPress.com. This version is limited in versatility, while the self-hosted version is where the plugins can be installed.
With over 20000 plugins from which to choose, it can be extremely difficult to decide which of the WordPress plugins you should install, as they are listed by categories and purpose.The following is a list of the top five plugins that should be installed on every blog;
Askimet: If there is a lot of traffic to your blog, it is very likely that some of it would be spam. Askimet can segregate trackbacks and comments on your site and classify those that are most likely to be spam comments. The algorithm produces a relatively high rate of accuracy, and you also override Askimet`s classification. You can also view statistics on all the comments that Askimet has reviewed on your site.
All in One SEO Pack: Each post or each page on your site can be optimized for the search engines. With All in One SEO Pack, you can add keywords and titles to each page. You can also include keywords in your description. Knowing the length of characters in the description and the title are important for optimization, as well as the density of the keywords that are included on your page.
Sitemap: Sitemaps describe the architecture and navigation of your site to the search engines. If the search bots can easily follow the hierarchy, it indicates that visitors will also be able to navigate your site. One of the best sitemap generators is Dagon Design. It supports many different categories and subcategories, and you can also hide links. The search engines will favor your site if the sitemap is easily discovered.
Google XML Sitemap for Videos: We all know how popular videos are on the web. Search engines now need to recognize videos on your site. The sitemap generator will tell the search engines where the videos are on your site. The videos will be added to the index, which can add more favor when the embedded clips from YouTube have been added to posts on your pages.
Disqus: One of the advantages of the blog platform is that it allows others to post comments. With Disqus, you can manage the comments via email, and it easily integrates with some of the social networks, as well as the current comment system in WordPress
